Saturday, February 28, 2009

Letter to Obama

I'm posting yet again to my favorite blog. I will be trying my best to post much more, including on topics that are more personal, different and perhaps very unique. I will also be posting comments I write from other blogs and media forums, as I would like to have these recorded in one place for fun and posterity.

In the meantime, I received very complimentary feedback (from very awesome people) on the letter I wrote to Obama to commemorate the Nationwide Chicago Tea Party, as initiated by the skilled oratory of Rick Santelli. In the signed and mailed letter, I included a nice packaged bag of Lipton tea:

February 27, 2009

The White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20500

President Obama:

Today is the kick-off the of the Nationwide Tea Party, so I am enclosing one tea bag to remind you that I am not your slave nor the slave of any other person with "needs" — that the wealth that I earn is mine, and the money that you forcibly take from me is theft.

While you are in office, I will be fighting for my property rights and, most of all, my rights as a sovereign individual — to think, act and produce by my own mind and actions.

You plan to force your way into my bank account even more. But as long as there is a place to say it, I will make known to as many Americans I can that what you are doing is immoral. Stealing any amount of my money to give to anyone is immoral, no matter what the purpose.

With this tea bag, I am telling you that I do not sanction your vicious attacks on my livelihood. I understand that you are boldly lying when you claim to want to reduce the federal deficit and pay lip service to the noble idea of personal responsibility, while encouraging every ne’er-do-well to dip into the public loot.

You are not my boss or parent or dictator, even though you want to force this relationship on me. I do not accept this abusive, parasitic relationship, and I promise to fight my entire life to teach others the moral ideas of individual rights, rational self-interest and unsullied capitalism in order to stop thieves like you.

As Samuel Adams once said, "It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." I, along with my friends, will never willingly bend to your grotesque demands. You may make more slaves out of people, including nationalizing healthcare to make slaves of doctors, but you will never have my moral sanction.

I've heard this point made, and if it is true that Obama is not a U.S. citizen, and if he was not actually born in Hawaii, yes, it would be unconstitutional for him to be our president. But focusing on this is like trying to cut off one head of a thousand-headed beast.

I'm here to fry much bigger fish than this -- that means philosophically bigger fish -- down to the very root of this madness. I cannot stress enough how crucially important it is for all of us to understand the concept and origins of individual rights and to be perfectly articulate in declaring our right to exist as individuals.

Stand on that mountain top and tell the world you have a right to exist -- which means you have a right to act through your nature as a rational human being -- which means you have a right to use your reason, or thinking skills, to produce, build and create the necessary materials for your survival AND happiness -- which means you have a right to trade freely with other individuals and keep the money you make through the contracts you set up with them -- which means you have a right to collect and keep every penny you earn in your paycheck to do with whatever you want, barring force or fraud upon other people -- which means you have a right to support a government that protects yours and others individual rights by way of the police and the courts. (Of course today, the police and courts will protect you from theft when committed by a burglar, but not when that theft is committed by politicians.)

PLEASE READ this page on individual rights, written by Ayn Rand: http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/individualrights.html

And remember that a right only means the freedom an individual has to act to keep himself alive, and it does not mean he has a right to hurt others in any way. For instance, he does not have a right to steal your money so that he can have healthcare or candy or a shoeshine.

There is an even more fundamental (and important) idea than individual rights –- and that is reason. Everyone has it –- which means every (functioning) human being has the ability to understand reality and to figure out what she needs to survive –- which means that this problem-solving is done at an individual level –- which brings us back to individual rights –- which means that the defining aspect of an individual is that she possesses the tool of reason –- which means that these collectivist-types, using whatever incorrect excuse, are being false when they declare that they have no ability to reason, and that they need you to feed them and sustain their lives. They do not have a claim on any minute of your life or penny of your paycheck. If they are moral and honest, each person will understand that they are empowered with reason, and he can take action to sustain his life. (Of course, some people don’t believe they have this power, but they do, and they should be frequently reminded.)

So stand up on the roof of that skyscraper and declare to all the world that you have reason, and you expect everyone else to be empowered with this tool as well and to take full responsibility for their own lives, as you do yours.

Correct philosophy, and spreading its ideas, is the ONLY thing that will protect us from the barbarians right now and in the future.

I find it interesting how you bemoan the government taking your money via taxes, yet feel perfectly justified to use the fruits of taxes (or as you may put it "thefts") past. Example: the Internet. This was developed using taxpayer's money from as far back as the 1950's (back when it was just ARPANET).

This is what I suggest to you: if altruism and taxes are evil, stop utilizing the fruits of those concepts. Stop driving on public roads. Stop using public funded hospitals. Stop using the Internet. Only then will you have a firm basis on which to critize. Until then, your use of these institutions constitutes as an accomplice to the thefts you mention above.

I'm sorry you are so confused about this issue. I did not choose to be taxed for roads, libraries, etc. The money I've earned is drained from me against my will and at the point of gun. So I am working on a philosophical and political level to infuse the culture with the correct ideas of individual rights and capitalism. I have paid taxes for 22 years, and therefore have purchased these government-run services. To accept your proposition of becoming a martyr and a recluse is very silly. Thanks, but no thanks!

I am not suggesting martyrdom, just practing what you preach. As far as being a recluse... interesting conclusion. I think this has always been the biggest flaw in Rand's point of view: who owns the roads? In a world of complete private ownership, is there a tollbooth every 5 yards? What if somebody owned all the property that surrounds your property and they don't want you to trespass?

I am not at all confused about the issue. Your use of the institutions is a silent affirmation of their existence and the means of which they continue to exist. If you remember in Atlas Shrugged, all the strikers continued to survive, but went on strike against the apparatus they felt was feeding off of them parasitically. If you truly believe in what you say (especially regarding taxes and those institutions supported by them) you would go on strike using them.